Focus on quality – This was apparent in many things, but most noticeable in food.

Strawberries – Absolutely the most amazing strawberries I’ve ever tasted. That is saying a LOT considering how spoiled I’ve been with Oregon strawberries. French strawberries are small, delicate, and taste like strawberry flowers.

Ice cream at every turn. There is a big ice cream culture in Toulouse. I’ve never seen so many ice cream shops per capita anywhere. Skinny French women walk around slurping ice cream from gigantic waffle cones. Go figure. I think they don’t eat anything else.

Narrow, cobblestone streets.

Old buildings made of stone.

French: access to a 24-hour learning lab.

Fries with mustard, best fried in duck fat.

Rose.

Village culture.

Everything being so close in the city.

Multilingualism – F rom the clerks at the grocery store to the clothing store clerks, most young people had at least a second language. Popular second languages were English, Spanish, and German.

Shutters – The local style here is wooden shutters on all windows. They are open in the morning and night, and closed during the day to keep out the sun. A popular color is pale blue.

Cafe culture – People hang out at cafes most of the day, after waking up at 10, that is. Generally speaking, people don’t seem to eat out, they drink instead. I think eating in restaurants is expensive here, so people go out and drink coffee or wine with their friends instead. Cafes and bars are packed much of the time. It helped that the whole country was on vacation for July.

HOT weather.

July sales – The government mandates that all stores have sales in July. It’s a trip! I think it’s because everyone is on vacation and maybe they want to stimulate the economy during a slow time. You walk around Toulouse and there are “SOLDES” signs in every shop window. Very cool.

Dairy products – I’ve never seen such a huge variety of dairy products. From the corner grocery to the gourmet markets in the city, the French love dairy products! Gajillions of yogurt flavors and styles, butters, clotted creams, semi-whipped creams, milks, soft cheeses, hard cheeses, cheeses from ewes, goats, cows, and anything else you could possibly make cheese from, creme brulees in to-go cartons, etc. It’s a dairy lover’s paradise.

Bisous – The French double-cheek kisses for greeting and departing.

Gazpacho in a carton (which is pretty good).

Learning about another culture (“The French have a different system” – how many times did I hear this statement?)

Kir – Toulouse had an interesting violet kir (one of the city’s nicknames is the City of Violets), but my favorite was peach (peche).

Beets at the market being sold roasted. I never saw a beet for sale that was not already roasted.

Traveling/adventure!

Being on vacation.

Things I won’t miss at all:

Being openly ogled by men on the street

Men (ahem) relieving themselves openly in the street

French drivers/driving with maniacs

Dog poop on the streets

Everyone smoking everywhere

Things I won’t miss for a while:

Rich food

Foie gras (impossible to believe, but true)

Duck (ditto)

Things I’ve missed from home:

The Man

Mr. Pickle

Exercising!

Cooking

Sitting somewhere without having to buy something (they need more parks and benches in Toulouse)

Portland

My house

Friends

English

Sour flavors

Gluten-free products

Parks

Things I’ve not missed from home:

The news

Politics

Working

Bills

Rain

Daily worries

Homeless people – There were some homeless people in Toulouse, but not anywhere near our numbers.

Poverty – In the countryside and the city, they don’t have the obvious extremes that we do. I kept asking if I was just unable to “see” it with my American eyes, but I had to finally conclude that the extremes just aren’t as extreme as they are in the States.

Driving

Things that are apparently universal:

Bureaucracy

Less than helpful postal employees

Airport security

People kvetching about taxes

Some mouth-watering pics:

Babette, j'taime! This is SEMI-WHIPPED CREAM in a CARTON! Ridiculous. Amazing with strawberries.

Average breakfast. This was the day I went to the market at St Sernin.

Average lunch. I had just stumbled upon an open-air antique book market, as you do! Bought DL a French cookbook there.

The streets and parks have these signs that are in French (top) and Oc, the regional native language (bottom). There are a lot of Oc books and they teach it now (again) in schools to children.

Lunch when I got tired of French food: kebab! I was somewhat verbally accosted by an aggressive panhandler while eating this at an outdoor table. The kebab shop owners jumped to my defense. All I understood was "THIS LADY DOESN'T EVEN SPEAK FRENCH!!!" It's sadly true. I had no idea what the guy was saying to me.

Do you see why one might get sick of foie gras? THIS is the portion size. I ate so little of this that the proprietress asked me if anything was wrong with it. I struggled to explain it was one of the few things without wheat on the menu, but that I'd been eating way too much foie gras already this week. She was very gracious. We ended up talking about her trip to San Francisco. I understood "Golden Gate" anyway.

Ice cream probably deserves its own post, but alas. This was my favorite: dark chocolate and jasmine by Phillippe Faur at the Florida Room on the Place du Cap.

No, you haven’t lost your mind. I WAS having trouble with dairy, but now I seem to be fine. Maybe the gluten had so destroyed my gut that I was having problems with dairy (and other stuff). Time seems to have helped that immensely. I’m grateful!!!

Yes, the trip was life-changing! Awesome, awesome, awesome! Loved every second of it.

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About

Diagnosed with celiac disease (dermatitis herpetiformis) in 2004, I've been gluten-free since then. Because the GF diet hasn't seemed to work for me, I'm trying the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. No grains, no sugar, no potatoes, and limited dairy. Here's what I do eat.
If you're looking for my fiction and freelance writing, it's over here.
Name: Melanie Jennings
Location: Portland, OR, USA